Former Foundry Commercial Managing Director Mark Lindenbaum has joined Cushman & Wakefield as executive director of its Atlanta Land & Development Services advisory group. 

The expanded land advisory group advises landowners, developers, investors, municipalities and corporate clients on the acquisition, disposition and capitalization of urban-infill sites, suburban mixed-use projects, industrial developments, multifamily communities and master-planned projects. 

Before he joined Foundry Commercial, Lindenbaum was a managing director with JLL’s capital markets group in Atlanta. During his career, he has closed deals involving over 25,000 acres of land valued at more than $1 billion. The acreage has been developed into approximately 15,000 single-family lots, 6,000 apartments, 15 million square feet of industrial space, 1.5 million square feet of retail space, 1.75 million square feet of office space and over 1,200 hotel rooms. 

Metro Atlanta is entering the early stages of a new development cycle thanks to limited near-term property deliveries, Lindenbaum said, adding developers are increasingly looking to grow their land banks for future development. 

“As an industry we’re navigating beyond the peak noise of the past few years, however the capital environment is still very discerning,” he said. “Equity and debt are readily available, but elevated borrowing costs and underwriting standards continue to hamper development, despite the improving underlying fundamentals across most asset classes. Our team is leveraging capital relationships and managing execution risk for our clients as the market resets and more land is put into production heading into next year.” 

C&W’s land advisory group is led by Chris Ahrenkiel, managing principal for the Atlanta office. 

“Mark has an exceptional talent for seeing around corners, spotting viable development opportunities early, aligning stakeholders, bridging execution gaps and bringing capital together,” Ahrenkiel said. “He’s been a driving force behind some of the most transformative development projects in the Southeast. We set out to add a market leader when evaluating our land advisory strategy, and Mark more than fulfills that goal.”